Jacalyn Duffin

@drugshortage.bsky.social

120 followers 240 following 37 posts

hematologist, historian, and drug shortage activist

Jacalyn M. Duffin is a Canadian medical historian and hematologist. She held the Hannah Chair, History of Medicine at Queen's University from 1988 until 2017. Formerly, she was president of the American Association for the History of Medicine and Canadian Society for the History of Medicine. From 1993 to 1995 she was Associate Dean Undergraduate Studies and Education at Queen's University. She is most well known for her testimony which led to the canonization of Marie-Marguerite d'Youville. As of 2010, she has published eight books on the history of medicine and has written numerous articles on various subjects relating to the history of medicine, miracles, and hematology. In 2019, Duffin was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. .. more

History 40%

Psychology 16%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin, Robert Wolfe

Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · 3d

A C-list anti-vaxxer wanted to know if I was really stupid enough to believe that vaccines work by preventing disease, not infection. Yes, if “stupid” means 200 years of evidence

History class is in session. Do you know why vaccines are called vaccines?
rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/how-vaccin...

How Vaccines Actually Work

Vaccines prevent disease, not infection, no matter how the word "vaccine" is defined

rasmussenretorts.substack.com

Reposted by Shannon Vallor, Richard Price, Jacalyn Duffin , and 2 more Shannon Vallor, Richard Price, Jacalyn Duffin, Adrian Daub, James M. Thomas

Wolfgang Blau @wblau.bsky.social · 6d

I would struggle to trust an academic who doesn‘t know how to
use AI tools.
Which is not the same as not being critical.

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin, Robert Wolfe

Jesse Thorn @jessethorn.bsky.social · 6d

Selena Simmons-Duffin at NPR broke the news about the trans kids’ health care ban, and now she’s following up. Note that she actually talks to doctors and trans kids, not just politicians.

www.npr.org/sections/sho...

Trump's push to end transgender care for young people opposed by pediatricians

Doctors and children's hospitals say nothing in the evidence has changed to justify the Trump administration's efforts to ban gender-affirming care for teens and tweens.

www.npr.org

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin

Michelle Cohen @docmcohen.medsky.social · 8d

Building on work that @tarakiran.bsky.social and I published 5 yrs ago, we're excited to announce the first of two new papers on the #GenderPayGap in Canadian medicine. This one is for @jama.com.

Data shows "pink collaring" or devaluation. Incomes going down when women enter a specialty.

#Medsky🧵

Proportion of Female Physicians in a Specialty and Median Annual Payments

This cross-sectional study evaluates whether an increase in the proportion of female physicians in a specialty is associated with a decrease in the median annual payments for that specialty.

jamanetwork.com

Reposted by Joshua Gans, Tim Bale, Tom Shakespeare , and 8 more Joshua Gans, Tim Bale, Tom Shakespeare, Henning Melber, Jacalyn Duffin, Robert Wolfe, Patrick Svensson, Justin Lewis, Scott A. Imberman, Simon Lester, David Darmofal

Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 12d

Ahmed al Ahmed, a Lebanese Muslim who owns a Sydney fruit shop, risked his life to disarm one of the Bondi Beach shooters.

His courage gives me hope amidst the horror and darkness. Muslims and Jews are not enemies. Our futures, in the Middle East and beyond, are intrinsically bound.

A true hero.

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin

Cephalopods Daily @cephalopodsdaily.bsky.social · 12d

Diamondback Squids (Thysanoteuthis rhombus) lay their eggs in giant pink slinkies. These egg masses are made up of two threads of eggs wrapped around a cylinder of mucus.

These egg masses contain 35,000 to 75,000 eggs and have a length of 60 cm to 180 cm long with a diameter of 11 to 30 cm.

An egg mass of a diamondback squid (Thysanoteuthis rhombus) floating in the water. It is a large tube made out of thousands of tiny pink eggs that are in a coiled thread, forming a tube that looks not unlike a slinky. The photo as taken from one of the ends, and the coil goes into the background and to the right. It is just below the surface of the water, and you can see the reflection above it.

An egg mass of a diamondback squid (Thysanoteuthis rhombus) floating in the sea just below the surface of the water. The egg mass is magenta and is a coiled thread of squid eggs, forming a tube that looks not unlike a slinky. It is making an S bend.

A close up of an egg mass of a diamondback squid (Thysanoteuthis rhombus) floating in the water. It is a large tube made out of thousands of tiny pink eggs that are in a coiled thread,forming a tube that looks not unlike a slinky. The photo is taken from inside the tube.

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin

Robert Wolfe @bobwolfe.bsky.social · 12d

wow

Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 13d

good grief, this superb, heartbreaking piece. Not all heroes wear capes, eh. www.ft.com/content/cd59...

‘It’s just a bomb’

The true story of two strangers and an extraordinary act of courage

www.ft.com

Reposted by John Horgan, David Rothschild, Jacalyn Duffin , and 1 more John Horgan, David Rothschild, Jacalyn Duffin, Gerald Friedman

Adam Kinzinger @adamkinzinger.substack.com · 15d

Watch this. Then remember that the president doesn’t care. He cares that his old ass gets richer in the hand full of years he may have left.

And his sick rich friends. The most corrupt evil man to ever serve as president is ignoring real evil

The Ukrainian Review @theukrainianreview.bsky.social · 15d

💔 A European Parliament interpreter could not hold back tears during the speech of 11-year-old Roman Oleksiv from Lviv.

The boy survived a missile strike on Vinnytsia on July 14, 2022, which killed his mother - it was the last time he saw her alive.

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin

Carolyn A 🇨🇦🍁❤️ @allthingsontario.bsky.social · 16d

Dr. Elaine Ma is a hero in Kingston. Doug Ford is NOT!

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin

Chris Warren @christian-s-warren.bsky.social · 20d

We're inundated with stories of violence--the "conventional" violence of bombs and beatings, and the "slow violence" of health and social structures being erased. As winter descends, I offer the notion of vitamin D deficiency as "slow violence."
🗃️ #histmed
substack.com/home/post/p-...

Slow Violence, Low Vitamins

The harm done by vitamin D deficiency is hard to track, especially if no one is tracking it.

substack.com

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin

Ennius @enniusredloeb.bsky.social · 20d

An elephant protecting its young from a dragon.
#ElephantonFriday
BnF MS Latin 6838B; anonymi tractatus de quadrupedibus, de avibus et de piscibus; 14th century; f.4v
@gallicabnf.bsky.social

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin

Alexandre Klein @alexandreklein.bsky.social · 23d

Jean-François Braunstein en roue libre !

Reposted by American Library Association, Jacalyn Duffin, Christine Kooi

The labor librarian @laborlibrarian.bsky.social · 23d

A couple weeks ago we got a lovely note from someone on the other side of the country thanking us profusely for ILLing a book to them. Curious, we looked up the book they borrowed.

It would have cost $1,200 for them to purchase it.

ILL is one of the things I love most about libraries.

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 23d

Requested a book through ILL over break. It arrived today. Libraries man.

Reposted by American Library Association, Jacalyn Duffin, Michael W. Kraus

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 23d

Requested a book through ILL over break. It arrived today. Libraries man.

Erik Angner @erikangner.com · 29d

"Runctitiononal features"? "Medical fymblal"? "1 Tol Line storee"? This gets worse the longer you look at it. But it's got to be good, because it was published in Nature Scientific Reports last week: www.nature.com/articles/s41... h/t @asa.tsbalans.se

Infographic with AI slop published in Nature Scientific Reports

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin, Robert Wolfe

Anton Gerashchenko @antongerashchenko.bsky.social · Nov 22

‼️ Friends, this is very important. Please share to whoever this may concern, especially if you are in the United States.

Ukraine wants peace. Lasting, just, sustainable peace, and not a pause before the next bloodbath. I cannot stress this enough.

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin

IHPST | University of Toronto @ihpst-uoft.bsky.social · Nov 22

Meet IHPST alumna Alison Li (PhD 1992), who was awarded the Jason A. Hannah Medal by the Royal Society of Canada for Wondrous Transformations (UNC Press, 2023).
🏅 The medal honors outstanding work in the history of medicine published in the past five years.

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin

Ted Hsu @tedhsu.bsky.social · Nov 20

Dr. Ammar Rashid, a Pakistani immigrant, was recognized in 2022 for his work in improving access to family medicine in Kingston.

Ontario’s plan to restrict residency matching to international grads with two years of Ontario high school would shut out talent when we need it most.

Jacalyn Duffin @drugshortage.bsky.social · Nov 19

www.canadiandoctorsformedicare.ca/canadian_doc...

Canadian Doctors for Medicare Warns Albertans of Premier’s Plan to Undermine Public Health Care

Seeking to strengthen and improve Canada's universal publicly-funded health care system. Evidence-based, values driven.

www.canadiandoctorsformedicare.ca

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin

Canada Healthwatch 🍁 @canadahealthwatch.ca · Nov 18

Ontario's new residency rule dashes hopes of internationally trained doctor https://ottawacitizen.com/news/ontario-new-residency-rules

𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀 ⇢ CanadaHealthwatch.ca 🍁

Ashok Kumar Biswas is an internationally trained doctor with a lot of experience who has been volunteering and working toward applying to be a resident in Ontario. A recent rule change that makes it harder for international physicians to apply has dashed his hopes.

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin

Katie Matthews, PhD @katieocean.bsky.social · Nov 18

this is amazing - individually tagged monarch butterflies

gift link

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/s...

We Can Now Track Individual Monarch Butterflies. It’s a Revelation.

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin, Robert Wolfe

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Nov 15

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com

President Trump wants us to believe that stopping fentanyl “will let the wholesome, traditional American culture that he idealizes to flourish again,” David Herzberg writes. “As a historian of drugs, I can tell you that this argument is wrong in almost every way.”

Opinion | Trump Is Wrong About Fentanyl in Almost Every Way

Everything the Trump administration is doing to stop the flow of drugs is just making the problem worse.

nyti.ms

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin

Robert Wolfe @bobwolfe.bsky.social · Nov 15

this is great! If you've been there, you know. And make sure you get all the way to Bubbles

science.anu.edu.au/news-events/...

The unexpected poetry of PhD acknowledgements

After reading hundreds and hundreds of PhD theses, we accidentally discovered how to write the perfect PhD acknowledgement: it's a kind of poetry.

science.anu.edu.au

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin

Matthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · Nov 6

I logged in to write another blog for 'A Short History of Mental Health' (Psychology Today ) and realized that I've written 50 of these things! Here they are:
www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/shor...

A Short History of Mental Health

Looking backward to move forward

www.psychologytoday.com

Reposted by Jesse M. Shapiro, Jacalyn Duffin, E. Richard Gold , and 2 more Jesse M. Shapiro, Jacalyn Duffin, E. Richard Gold, Julia M. Wright, Lisa A. Kramer

André Picard @picardonhealth @picardonhealth.bsky.social · Nov 4

How much are MPs entitled to know about research grants? Not as much as they think. A parliamentary committee is asking for researchers' personal information in what seems like an anti-DEI crusade, by @picardonhealth.bsky.social www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti... via @theglobeandmail.com

Opinion: How much are MPs entitled to know about research grants? Not as much as they think

A parliamentary committee is asking for academics’ private information on a strange anti-DEI crusade

www.theglobeandmail.com

Reposted by Jacalyn Duffin

Philipp Osten @osten.bsky.social · Nov 3

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/h...

Marthe Gautier, 96, Dies; Had Key Role in Down Syndrome Breakthrough

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Jacalyn Duffin, Margot C. Finn , and 2 more Lesley A. Hall, Jacalyn Duffin, Margot C. Finn, Pauline Stafford, Kathleen Kennedy

Prof Ben Pohl @benpohl.bsky.social · Nov 1

I think it’s even worse: the lack of recognition that there even *is* such a thing as professional training in historical research!

NPR @npr.org · Oct 30

The White House plans to bar hospitals that treat transgender children and youth from getting any Medicare and Medicaid payments. The move would affect trans youth who have private insurance, too. n.pr/4qFa1mY